Rhizome Now Accepting Proposals for 2015 Net Art Microgrants

The nonprofit new-media arts organization Rhizome announced today that it is accepting proposals for the 2015 edition of their series of $500 microgrants centered around browser-based internet art.

“The $500 is kind of meant to buy domain names, get you a few days off work, actually have the time to make something,” Rhizome’s assistant director, Zachary Kaplan, told ARTnews. “[The money] is a push to realize a browser-based work that might not otherwise get made.”

The Net Arts Microgrants program is now in its second year. Highlights from last year’s winners include a PDF-based criticism journal by Deanna Havas and Jack Kahn as well as a Twitter hack by Martha Hipley. For the latter project, called untitled Twitter hack, Hipley used her grant to hire a hacker to break into two inactive Twitter accounts. The artist then claimed the usernames for herself, “thereby unifying her personal brand,” according to her initial proposal. Hipley sits on the jury for this year’s micogrants, alongside Kaplan and curator/critic Gaby Cepeda.

The series is part of a triumvirate of prizes doled out yearly by Rhizome. In addition to the modest microgrants, there is also the Rhizome Commissions program, which offers “substantial support” to artists based in New York City and is selected by Rhizome’s artistic director, Michael Connor.

At the high end of these three awards is Prix Net Art, presented in conjunction with Beijing-based TASML and CAT/CCIA. For the prix, more-established artists are awarded $10,000 for what Rhizome calls “past work and future promise.” Last year, the prize was awarded to net art legends JODI, with an additional $5,000 distinction for the artist Kari Altmann.